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Dynasty 300DX

Do any of you guys have a Dynasty 300DX purchased in the 2005 that has a arc stricking issue? When you start the arc it jumps from the start current set in the parameters to whatever current your pedal/amps are set for with no ramp. It's a real annoyance. I have this problem with mine and I am working with Miller on it. They supplied me with a new board about 3 weeks ago, I replaced the board and the arc strike problem was gone. Now there's a new problem, sometimes the arc strikes in the wrong polarity and balls up the tungsten. This does not happen often but enough to be a problem. I am waiting a response from Miller.

every dynasy 300 DX ive owned since 98 has had an arc striking issue
(ive had three different models)
the first model (nobby) was pretty good
the second model (first push pad panel) was the absolute worst
the third (new updated model) is somewhere in the middle
the tungsten has to have a perfect point or
on AC it will spitt and sputter till maybe finally it will start
usually by then ive already had to scratch start it

on DC you would swear the High frequency is shorting out in the machine.
you can hear it buzz, but no arc established. let go of the pedal, touch the tungsten to the metal , lift , then push pedal and there it is, an arc

now my dynasty 200 has absolutly no problem at all
except it just aint got the snort for thick aluminum

I was talking to a rep and he did say there is a way to set the machine to start on either the electrode positive side or the electrode negative side of the AC wave. You have to get into the setup menu and I dont remember how

I have had the rep and tech. from Miller here and we went through all the start parameters and tried many different combinations. It still did it. They re-designed the board and it took care of the starting issue's but gave me the every now and then tungsten balling issue's at start up. This is on DC. They now know my new problem and are supposed to be working on the new board. I have not heard from them in a while.

I just wanted to see if I was the only one with it. I'm getting sick of the problems with it. All my weding equipment is M<iller and this is the only one with a problem. It seems the high tech. stuff is too much or something. I may be trying for a buy back if it keeps up. I hate to do it bec ause I do love the Miller line, I just hope they can fix it for me.

I personally own a Dynasty 200 for my own shop. The company I am currently working for just purchased an XMT 350 in October and a Dynasty 300 in early December. The first job I took on was a camper made of 1/8" and 3/16" utility aluminum. In total about 80 feet of TIG weld. The first thing I noticed immediately out of the box is that sometimes it was impossible to start an arc with out re-sharpening the tungsten after breaking the arc 3-4 times. I thought that this was bizzarre, but didn't think much of it at first. My 200 has never given me problems however I only purchased it in early November and had maybe 30 hours on it compared to 90 plus hours on the 300. The only other TIG machines I have used are conventional (non invertor), so I just shrugged it off as being possibly an invertor problem.

The only fix I could find was to move the tungsten within 1/32" to the work then step on the foot pedal. The problem with this is depending on your line of vision it is extremely difficult to do this, especially when working off a ladder hunched over, playing a game of 'Twister' with the job you are working on. It usually ends with sticking the tungsten in your work and major frustration.

Having said this, once you achieve the proper settings for pulse and freq on aluminum, the Dynasty's are not even comparable to anything else I have seen or used. The HAZ is kept to a mininum, the bead width is controlable and with the 300 I could not move fast enough. I had to turn down the ameperage to keep up. Not to mention the duty cycle and the way the machine saves your AC or DC settings even when you jump back and forth between them or when you turn the machine off. This saves time reprogramming it and allows me to weld both aluminum and stainless at the same time using the same tungsten to boot.

I have absolutely no complaints with my 200, in fact it blew my mind, the 300 is the same but more powerful. I have onwed 8 various 'Red' machines over the last 10 years, switching this year to Blue because I was unhappy with many quirks the red machines each gave me over the years. Hopefully Miller will sort this out as the 300 was not cheap and is in high demand. We waited 3 weeks for them to build and ship one.

try turning up the post flow to about 1.2 to 1.5 seconds. It should strike the arc 100% of the time. I had to do this to my Dyn 200DX. It gave me hassles for not arc starting. I had the board replaced too. Still NG I ended up playing with the pre-flow a now it is fine. I am selling it though. I orderd a 300DX machine.
T.J.www.tjsperformance.com

Dynasty

Hello fellow welder

I seem to have this same problem with my 300 DX. Its about 7 years old, Doesn't have alot of time on it, but starting in AC is very troublesome. I find I can get an arc usually when I grind a new tip to the Tungstun, but not all the time. Some times welding is fine for a while, then gets so bad I have to work off my old Syncrowave 250.
The problem seems to get worse when the machine heats up, Ie more usage.

Is the new board expensive? Will it work with the first generation of the push botton Dynasty tig? I have asked the local shop, and one the dynasty are very uncommon around here, and they look at me with a twinkle in their eye. I think the twinkle is either from welding too much or the 3 oclock beers are calling them.

Weld starts with Dynasty 300

I want to share with you a few points of interest when welding with Inverters :

1. If you want to sharpen your skills and become knowledgeable about how important tungsten selection and sharpening is to the successful starting of a Tig arc go online and access: diamondground.com

They publish an article titled " The Proper Selection & Preparation of Tungsten Electrodes for Arc Welding ", and it deals with very important elements of tungsten selection and tips about how tungsten can cause starting problems

As a manufacturer of Tig welding equipment we recommend to our customers that they use Ceriated (orange stripe) tungsten for all AC/DC welding processes when welding with Inverters.
We currently ship Ceriated tungsten with Tig welding packages, and accessory kits which include tungsten.

The books in publication today still discuss Pure tungsten (green stripe)for welding aluminum, but there are so many more advantages to using Ceriated tungsten.

You will find that Ceriated tungsten will start better at low amperages, and when used in place of Pure tungsten you can expect to weld at 20% to 30% higher weld amperages before the tungsten forms a ball.

This is important when welding on aluminum, which requires a high heat input intially to heat the base material due to aluminum's high thermal conductivity.

Tungsten

On my Dynasty, when the AC start problems arise, it doesn't matter whether or not there is a fresh Tungsten, old, sharpened, pure or ceriated. It WILL not start. In a pinch I have tired even changing to scratch start and no amount of trying will the machine start an arc.
It does make a mess of the electrode, the work, and produces a nasty HF background noise that makes my satalite radio produce nothing but static.

200dx

Take my thoughts with a grain-of-salt, I'm self teaching myself to weld. If I ball the tungsten - I have trouble starting the arc. If I sharpen it (ceriated, or thoriated) and use fine iron wool to polish both the tungsten and my filler material - the arc starts fine ands it's my inept handling of the are/filler that fouls the electrode.